Wednesday, April 30, 2014

THE TOWER KING

THE
TOWER KING (Hibernia, 2014; Periodical)

Collects
The
Tower King
stories from The
Eagle
Nos. 1-24 (cover dates March 27- September 4, 1982)

Writer:
Alan Hebden

Artist:
Jose Ortiz

The
solar power satellite converted solar energy into microwaves which
were recoverted into electricity and powered the Earth in the future
of the late 1980s. The microwaves disrupted the Earth's atmosphere,
resulting in the planet being thrust into the stone age after a
nuclear meltdown occurred. No electricity, no radio waves, only steam
power remained as society rapidly collapsed. It was in this chaos
that Mick Tempest rallied the remnants of civilization (or
civilisation at the British spelled it in this book) in The Tower of
London and became The Tower King.

While
the whole post-apocalyptic scenario has been done to death and was
fresh on everyone's mind at the time of original publication, it
would be even more disastrous if something like this occurred today.
The future is now and we live in a technology based society, for
better and sometimes worse.

I
enjoyed the Tube Rats, the somewhat mutated humans who live in the
London Underground subway system and come to the surface to forage
for food. There are lots of cool societies, like the Wreckers and the
worshipers of the Electric Temple, among others. A meteor ends up
destroying the satellite and the power returns. The series is wrapped
up rather hastily, like editorial gave them the heave ho, time to
pull the plug. I am grateful that we at least have a resolution this
saga.

British
comics were dialogue heavy and used caption boxes sparingly, which is
now par for the course for all comic books. If you compare this to US
comics of 1982 then it is totally different in tone and presentation.
Being a weekly serial means that the pacing is tight and fast, with
little to no time to catch your breath. The violence is of course
more over the top than American comics of the time as well since the
Dan Dare Corporation was not beholden to the Comics Code Authority.

Every
time that I stumble upon things like this or Heros The Spartan,
the more fascinated I become by British comics. These are often only
available as incredibly expensive imports, and their barrier to entry
only seems to fuel my fascination. If it is obscure and expensive it
must be good, right? If it were cheap and readily available then nobody would want it.
Someday some pharmaceutical company will create a medication to treat
my OCD. Until then, the search for the obscure and the joy of
discovery will continue.

If
you hurry you may be able to grab one of the last remaining copies here.

Junk
Food For Thought rating: 4.25 out of 5.

The
OCD zone- This is not a trade paperback or collected edition in
the traditional sense of the word. It is a saddle-stitched (read:
stapled) quasi-periodical roughly the same size as Marvel oversized
hardcover or a DC Deluxe Edition hardcover. If this is ever
re-released as a proper hardcover with sewn binding I would gladly
double dip. The material is certainly worthy of such deluxe
presentation.

The
cover is a thicker paper stock than the interior. The book has all of
the features and layouts of a regular collected edition. My guess is
that this was done in this format due to costs. Hibernia is
essentially a fan made labor of love with tiny print runs. I ordered
two of these hand numbered books (one for my friend and one for
myself so that we could carpool shipping costs), my copy being #174
of 200. It cost $30.04 for two copies shipped from Ireland, which is
not bad, I just wish that it was a true collected edition.

DVD-style
Extras included in this book: None. The
issue covers are not even included.

Linework/
restoration rating: 5 out of 5. These are obviously cleaned up
scans of the original issues. Everything looks great. I suspect that
the handful of pages that look a little dark or murky were originally
printed that way.

Paper
rating: 4 out of 5. Decent weight uncoated stock.

Binding
rating: 2 out of 5. Saddle-stitched (read: STAPLED) periodical.
No spine so it cannot be proudly displayed on your bookshelf.